Ha! I love this shirt. Yes, I know it's not entirely something I would want to convey - I mean, Christians don't have to be idiots and we shouldn't be confused about everything. But I like what they're trying to say: we also don't have all the answers. It's a journey, and we all have plenty to learn... from God and one another. As far as I'm concerned, anybody that tells you they don't have a disfunctional church is either lying, uninformed, stupid, or they're in heaven (and, no, I don't mean Iowa). I don't know if Bill Allison created this shirt or not, but that's apparently where it came from.
ht: Randy
7 comments:
when i read this I thought, "That's how I feel about myself most of the time." I suck. I have nothing to offer. I don't know anything. I am just a small person in a small life trying to discover more about God. I really need people who are confused like me to walk with. Like you said, anybody who pretends to have the all the answers is . . . what you said.
I agree with you both. Too many times we pretend to have answers to questions that have no answers but for some reason we think we need to answer them... I believe there are things we can be confident in with some clarity, but we don't need to try to be God, He's got that covered.
Howard Johnson is RIGHT!
You know, after putting this post up I suddenly wasn't sure if this saying was meant to be a positive for the church or a negative. I guess I'm still not sure.
I think it can be a negative for some, and a positive for some. So I was glad someone agreed with me. And as long as Howard Johnson is right... well, that's just icing on the cake.
I think it's stuff like this that is why I like my church. No one tries to act like a know-it-all, or that we have it all figured out. Almost everyone is an admitted hobbling seeker. And I am happy to hobble right along with them... with faith and hope that God knows what He's doing, even though we might not.
I guess I just didn't want anyone thinking I was dissing on my church again. Because it's completely the opposite of that. But I could see how it could be confusing.
Thanks for the feedback.
I was going to comment on this right away because I really liked it. I decided maybe I should take some more time to digest it and try to really understand what it might mean to someone else.
I'm really glad I did because now I don't know that I like it as much as I thought. I agree that at times, we do suck, and I agree that we aren't trying to give people stuff, and I agree that there are a lot of things we don't know. I really like the end because we are definitely a small group of people trying to discover more about God and that is pretty darn confusing. I like that our church allows people to suck and to be confused.
But I think that's something we really know about and that's something really great that a lot of churches don't offer.
I really like our little group because we embrace the fact that sometimes things suck and we don't try and tell anyone that they are less of a person or less of a Christian because some things in their lives suck. But I think that we, and especially our pastor (you) knows that a sucky life isn't where it ends. We know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel even if it seems pretty dark at this point in our journey. That, essentially, is what we have to offer - a little thing I like to call hope. And also grace.
That's a huge offering. So, I would change the shirt to say:
"Sometimes life sucks,
and we don't have all the answers, but we can offer you are home within our small group of people, in this old building, where we are tying to discover more about God. Come be confused with us..."
That doesn't make a very cool t-shirt though. It almost seems cheesy.
There's my two cents. And fyi, I defintiely agree with what mom and Joan said. And I suppose with what MR said but I didn't take the time to wiki Howard Johnson to see if I really agree with him.
Carrie,
Those are my thoughts exactly. Thanks for sharing them.
And the Howard Johnson comment is in reference to the movie "Blazing Saddles." I'm sure you've seen it. :)
peace & blessings.
Oh I've definitely seen that movie. I actually just watched parts of it on tv a couple weeks ago. It's a lot different now than when I was 10.
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